Yoga fighter

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#1

Finding yoga

Hi. My name is Bill. About a month ago I walked into a yoga center near my home and tried to explain why I wanted to start yoga. As I started to explain, tears practically came to my eyes. Now I usually don?t cry. The last time was around 9/11. What I tried to explain was that my whole life I have been a competitor and a fighter. Growing up I played most sports. Baseball, football, wrestling, soccer, and basketball?I played hockey for 20 years. I played semi pro in Europe for two years. When I moved to California I found Brazilian jujitsu. This is a martial art that looks like wrestling with the goal forcing a submission hold on your opponent. At my jujitsu school we have fighters that compete around the world in mixed martial arts events including the UFC. (The Ultimate Fighting Championship.) I had a sense of pride knowing that I could hang with some of these young guys. (I will be 40 next month). I compete in tournaments about once a year.

I had knee surgery about 2 months ago. While I was rehabbing, I sprained my other knee. I got scared because never before was it so hard to walk. I felt like I was walking on thin ice or stilts. At any moment my legs felt like they would collapse. I?ve had to rethink the way I approach working out and staying in shape. I need a program that will fit my lifestyle for the next 40 years.

So here I am. I?m willing to make the commitment to change. My friends are funny. When I tell them that yoga is my new thing. They ask, ?Do they have yoga tournaments? How will you compete??

It?s weird, but I like it. It feels so strange to be a novice?making mistakes?looking foolish. I almost started laughing when I started my first class with ?Ohm?. Now however, I love it. It?s the only exercise that makes me feel better afterwards. In a few months I might go back to jujitsu. I don?t know yet. As for now I will be enjoying yoga.

I was hoping to read about your ideas, thoughts, goals, and aspirations. Most of all I just wanted to say hi and tell you all that you have a beautiful ?sport.? I?m happy to be a student.

#2

dont have much to add but your story sounds pretty cool, good luck in the search. In life the only true competition is finding ourselves.

#3

Hi, Bill… I’m a 47 y/o computer programmer. I grew up in sports, wrestled, played football, rowed crew in college, etc. I took my first yoga class about six years ago to address upper back pain that I could never get rid of despite surfing and spinning (spin class) regularly. Yoga will challenge every aspect of your life up to date. There are reasons we do everything and Yoga exposes those and forces us to confront the validity of those motivations. My practice has drifted to a slow power vinyasa style that suits me. It’s powerful, yet peaceful. My entire life has changed dramatically as a result. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, more centered, calmer, and much, much happier. Words like “centered”, “grounded”, “inner teacher”, “true self”, etc. make little sense to most people, but their meaning and importance grow with each practice. Be open to new ideas and concepts. What may seem silly in the beginning will seem obvious months down the road.

I’ve now taught over 350 classes… even though I usually feel just a page or two ahead of the students. My only regret is that I was 41 before I discovered yoga. It’s important to me to share what others have shared with me… and seeing people experience the same wonder that yoga has brought to my life is such a reward.

Stick with it… try different classes, different teachers. Look up schools when you travel. Taking classes at studios around the country (and world) is a wonderful experience. Most schools are very welcoming. It’s an eye-opening experience to realize that such warmth in people still exists in this world.

Welcome to a new beginning!

Walt

#4

Thank you Walt and Tube. It’s only been a month and it seems that Yoga has already changed my life.

#5

Hello Yoga fighter and welcome to the forum!:slight_smile:

#6

Bill,

it’s an interesting story. More so for me as a former basketball coach of almost 20 years. I understand the nature you are sharing. And as I left that life behind, closed a chapter in order to finish the book (of my life), and became a yoga practitioner and then teacher I can completely plug in to your path.

The forces you were involved with are the vital forces. Those forces are, typically, of the lower nature, the root chakra, the pelvis, the reproductive organs. And now yoga which is an aspiration from there to the heart. It is the drawing up of that lower nature into the heart center and moving, breathing, being, as a heart centered human. Closer to the true self you go.

I am amazed at how people refuse to heed the dialogue their bodies are asking for. The messages are often right there, over time, slowly raising their volume. This may be the case with your knees. HEY BUDDY, stop pounding on us!!

And now you’ve kindly listened.
You’ll likely have a degree of remnant competitive nature - perhaps just with yourself, my friend. And so watch it carefully:-)

Also remember the (yoga) practice is one of keeping the ego in check (despite what you might see at yoga conferences), unlike the previous activities which both encouraged and nourished the ego. In addition, you were cultivating fight force, and while “cultivating” is something to carry over into yoga practice the force is not the vital fighting force but something different (for you to discover and explore).

My teacher always emphasizes how important it is for us to venture to act foolish. We actually work on it in teacher trainings. I’m pretty good at it:-) So this sense, making “mistakes” in class or feeling “goofy” is a good thing to do and examine.

Kudos for making change of this magnitude for what a shame it is when we live four more decades just as we are today.